Last week I went in to see my favourite style guru Mechac to update my wardrobe ready for spring. These are the looks that he put together for me!

Click the links to shop the looks!

Look 1

This suit was featured in the Fenn Wright Manson event I went to and I had to try it. I love this pastel colour for SS19 and it fits beautifully. I wore a petite trouser in this both trouser and jacket are size 8. I think this suit is perfect for so many occasions and can be dressed up or down.

You can never have too many denim jackets can you? It’s the perfect addition to a summer look. I love the fit of this jacket with the shorts. The top gives an pop of print and colour from Whistles. The shorts for me are the winner in this look – so comfortable but also smart for a short, a great addition to your summer wardrobe.

I really loved the material of this matching suit jacket and shorts. I love the combination of a suit jacket and shorts, so different from the usual jacket and trouser vibe. A great look to dress up or down again; I loved the heeled sandals with this. However for day a white trainer and a naughty heel for the evening could take it from day to night. Also, could be a great evening look in the autumn with tights and a heeled boot!

I feel like my wardrobe is so ready for SS19 now! Thank you to the team at John Lewis for all their help in styling the outfits. They offer a range of styling services from occasions to updating your wardrobe, they are super friendly and helpful. If you want to make a visit to John Lewis Oxford then get your new look by booking here

Me and the lovely Emily went strolling around Oxford the other week and found so many beautiful streets to explore!

Here are the accessories I am loving and cannot live without right now – great for SS19 and also a holiday…

Watch – Olivia Burton watches are just so pretty! This black one is perfect for every outfit, I love the floral details, it is so versatile; fabulous for dancing into the evening with. This one at John Lewis is on offer and is so similar – click here.

Bag – now this has a little story. My lovely cousin just went on holiday to India and brought me back this bag! Don’t you find that certain items in your wardrobe have a special spot in your life because there is a story behind them or someone bought them for you? This bag is something I have never seen before, I love how colourful it is, perfect for adding a pop of colour to an outfit. I saw this bag on ASOS that is a cute colour match – click here.

Headband -now this trend is fun isn’t it? I actually bought this in black because I thought it would go with more outfits then I realised that you can barely see it in my dark hair… ohh and the fact I actually already had a black headband! (Face palm) This yellow band is the cutest accessory for Spring/Summer (mine is from New Look) – click here.

Hair clips – ok this has got to be my fave trend right now. I feel like I am going back to school days wearing pretty hair clips but I’ve got a lady like makeover. I have searched far and wide for the best hair clips and for sure Oliver Bonas wins. I just love the pearl details so delicate and pretty – its a fab accessory and so on trend right now – click here to shop the range.

Hat – so looking at these shots with the hat and the oversized outfit and the lamp post I feel like I look like an extra from Oliver… please sir can i have some more?! This is a fun trend that’s still going from last year. Click here for Topshop’s latest version of it.

White trainer – ok. If you ever bump into me on a day to day or in Ole and Steen doing my admin you will see me wearing my white trainers. I used to have a fab pair from Zara but I wore them to death! I got these at Bicester Village from Under Armour and I love the beige colour at the back it makes them a little different. As they are from the Village they’re not online, but these ones from ASOS are similar and cheaper – click here.

On a side note – I did an insta story about keeping trainers white and I’ve been using these from Crep Protect, spray is okay but the wipes are so good and great price, click here to shop the range.

Want to shop my outfit? – all Zara – If you want to shop any more of my looks check out my 21 buttons account @hannahaustyn xx

If you didn’t know, I have been working as a Marketing and Communications Assistant for the last six months. I have learnt so much about the industry and it was actually my dream job. I always wanted to be one of those office type people with my own desk, creating Excel spreadsheets and writing to do lists. I have always wanted to work in marketing as I liked business at school and felt this was the right step for me.

Whilst I have been working in Marketing, my days off have been filled with blogging. It seemed like the perfect balance – a proper, sensible office job and a fun hobby on the side. However, over the last couple of weeks there has been this burning desire in me to jump and go full time blogging.

A book called When to Jump by Arthur M. Lewis really inspired me through this whole process. The book is a collection of different peoples experience in deciding to go forth with their passion and take that leap of faith to do what they love. It is split into four sections and includes fantastic quotes and honestly if you have ever had a dream this is the book to read!

When I finished it, the burning desire and little voice in my head saying “just do it” became so loud I couldn’t ignore it anymore. The changing point for me is when I told my family and friends what I wanted to do. It was really scary and I got mixed reactions but the closest people around me were so so supportive and excited for me. Obviously they said to plan and think logically but if it is what you love go for it.

One of the things that really resonated with me was the fact I was 21, I didn’t have a mortgage or bills to pay, I am at the beginning of my career it could not be a better time to jump. What’s the worst that can happen? I try my dream for six months see if I like it, learn and grow and show determination or try something else. The world is my oyster!

If not now, when ? If not you, who?

I have lots of exciting things to come on the blog and socials – please follow and support my journey! I cannot wait to share it all with you!

So it’s that time of year again where all you see is flowers, chocolates, perfume and lingerie all around. The smell of love. Greattttt! Ahah! I mean I have never been a fan of Valentines Day mainly because I have never been in a relationship so i have never experienced the excitement of it. If you are in a relationship and feeling all loved up today then i am happy for you and enjoy it. If you are a single Pringle like me then please continue reading…

Most Valentines I spend the days leading up to it feeling some sort of pressure that I am single. Feeling inadequate and a real sense of FOMO. Then I realised: It’s okay to be single. Please read that again. No pressure, no missing out on nothing. It is okay to be single. More than okay. It’s great! You have plenty more years to fall in love and break up with people and fall in love again so one more Valentine’s Day single is okay!

In fact if you are single on Valentine’s Day why not focus on loving yourself? After all how can you fall in love with someone if you don’t love yourself? Self love is more than posting a selfie of yourself that you really like. It is about taking care of your body and mental wellbeing whether that be eating good, exercising, meditating or surrounding yourself with the people that you love.

And on that note. Why does Valentine’s Day have to be about a boyfriend/girlfriend ?? You can spend the day sending love to the family and friends around you. Showing them how much you appreciate them. I LOVE the whole Galantines Day idea. You can show love in so many ways on V day.

The day is all about love after all. So instead of feeling all alone and crying into a bowl of ice cream watching Sex and the City. Why not spend the day sharing the love with your family and friends or yourself?

I am going to spend the day at work (amazing distraction) sending all my family and friends lots of love and treating myself to a relaxing evening. A good face mask, some good food and maybe one episode of Sex and the City….hehe!

Have a beautiful week my loves, speak soon xxxx

“This is a wonderful day, I have never seen this one before.” – Maya Angelou

On Monday I visited John Lewis in Oxford for a personal styling session. Personal styling is something that I have been really interested in for a long time- I did a course last year at the Fashion Retail Academy and fell in love with the process. However I’d never actually had a personal styling session done on me, so I was so excited to do this with John Lewis!

A little bit about what the styling session is like with JL:

They offer five different types of styling sessions including, the perfect jeans, wardrobe refresh and holiday. The session is completely tailored to your needs, there is no obligation to buy anything, the session is free and really it is all about you!

When I arrived I met Mechac who is the #StyleGuru ( give him a follow on his instagram: @jl_mechac for some womenswear and menswear inspo) he was amazing and made me feel so comfortable and excited to try something new.

For me, I wanted to try pieces that I wouldn’t normally wear and get me out of my fashion comfort zone (which involves many shades of black/ brown/ grey… I needed some colour in my life!)

One of the benefits of having a styling session in a department store is all the different collections. John Lewis have concessions for all types of people and their fashion personalities. My favourite collections were John Lewis and partners, Kin and Reiss.

John Lewis own range had amazing colour palettes, I loved all the tonal looks and the pop of colour products. Kin has modern, timeless pieces that are high quality- I loved the bags. Then Reiss is an all time favourite of mine for the combination of classic, high quality pieces.

Back to the session! Mechac created many outfit looks for me to try and it was so inspiring! I got to put on looks that I never would have and fell in love with them. Throughout the next week or so I am going to post on my instagram all the looks that Mechac put together and I will tag the items on my 21 Buttons account so you can shop the looks too!

Overall, if you have never had a personal styling session before I cannot recommend going to John Lewis enough. It’s a fantastic way to improve your confidence and get you out of your comfort zone. By going to John Lewis you get so much choice and also a tailored, personable experience. We all need a bit of self love now and again, why not treat yourself!

If you have any questions about the experience or want to know more please DM me on instagram. I love hearing what you guys think. Thank you for reading, speak soon, Hannah xxx

Good Evening my loves!! Happy New Year! Now I do feel slightly guilty writing this blog post as my last post was June of last year and it was called, “why everyone should take a social media break” the irony 🤦🏻‍♀️ I did not intend to take that much of a break from my blog but you know what life happens and I’m not gonna tell you about all the reasons why I didn’t post and bore you , I’m just gonna get cracking with the first one in 2019! (Hopefully the first of many, this year as I’m focusing on increasing my productivity in 2019 … I wonder why 😂)

Me and my mum have always wanted to go for an afternoon tea. It seems like the perfect mother daughter activity. We both like food and chatting so 2019 we decided to tick off the first thing on the “to do” list and go for afternoon tea. We chose the Farmshop in Bicester Village. First of all, it’s super pretty and the service is amazing in there so we thought by going for tea we were onto a winner.

We got a beautiful stand of delights brought to our table without much of a wait and the colours and presentation lived up to the typical afternoon tea look. We had wonderful salmon and cream cheese, cucumber and cream cheese and ham, cheese and mustard sandwiches. One for each person which was the perfect amount for a tasty treat without the bloating of too much bread. (Not being a sandwich fan I was delighted to find the crusts cut off!) then onto the second course; the almighty scone! Warm and homemade it was delicious and had a slight “ive just been baked” crunch to it. Do you put cream or jam first? Forget about Brexit that’s the real question on everyones lips in 2019 isn’t it?! 👀

Then onto the final plate on the prettiest food tower of them all, cake! An assortment of cakes from frangipane tart to salted caramel brownie to fresh fruits and macarooons. The final plate was so pretty and left the sweetest after taste. What’s even better was the fact that tea and coffee were included in the price. I got a pot of tea which was rather lovely and the hot drink was needed on a rather wintry January day. However I am not the biggest tea drinker (2 teas in the morning, before 9am and I’m done for the day, is that a thing or just me?!) so drinking all the tea ☕️ did take a little effort but mum had some too.

Overall, the service was great, the scenery was lovely (it’s Bicester Village so of course it’s pretty), the food was of high quality and a good quantity too and so was the price at £20 for 2. It was the most wonderful afternoon tea and the best we have ever had 😉, a 10/10 from me and mumma. Here is to more afternoon teas this year and hopefully more blog posts, if you like!

Hello! Hope your having a great week? This blog post is part of the series of blog posts I am doing as part of my trip to Rhodes. Have you seen my post on Rhodes? Click here to read it. Anyways… I wanted to talk about the subject of social media and taking a break from it whilst I was on holiday.

To begin with, I wasn’t intending on taking a break before we flew out to Greece. I was at the airport thinking, “Have I posted an Insta story yet? Should I post before or after flying? An airport pic?” However, in reality I was rushing through security and completely distracted by duty free that by the time I got on the plane my thoughts of posting were far, far away.

When we got to Rhodes I had to use free WiFi (my mobile data for some reason wasn’t working) and it was far more difficult to be online 24/7 like I am used to at home. The first couple of days just felt odd. I would be holding my phone whilst we sat by the pool and I was thinking what am I doing? I had urges to post and check my Twitter feed.

But then I took more time to just sit and think and really be present in the moment which is something I find difficult to do. I always focus on the future whereas I had to really fully understand what was happening right there and then. Which was amazing creatively for me as I had a beautiful sea view to inspire me!

Towards the end of the week the pressure and slight anxiety I felt had drifted and more creative ideas came bubbling to the surface. I full appreciated what was around me and started to enjoy the experience even more because I was 100% in the moment.

To conclude, having a social media break is HARD. Our whole lives revolve around it 24/7 365 days a year. However, if you can take yourself out of a situation or be in a place where you can’t use your phone it can be sooo beneficial. I know it’s odd for me to say this as a blogger when your comments and messages and interaction mean everything to me but you gotta do what you gotta do!

In a book I’m reading at the moment about decision making; it said that sitting in a dark room with no noise can actually promote creative thoughts. So while on holiday there was a dark part of one of the museums and it was kinda empty at the time… so i tried it … a little bit hard to concentrate as I was boiling hot and thinking about what I was gonna be eating in a few hours but I definitely felt clearer in the head… anyone else tried this?!

Overall it has left me in a better place going back to social media with more perspective, more creative thoughts and more importantly a clear mind ready for a new week.

Kalimera! (Good Morning) as I would of been saying a few days ago when I went to Rhodes in Greece. Yes, this is my first ever travel blog post which I’m super excited about! I went for a week to the beautiful Greek island of Rhodes and it was such an amazing experience. I’ve posted some photos on my Instagram stories, make sure to check them out… the poll said you wanted to see a blog post about my trip so here goes!

Where I Stayed

In terms of the island I stayed at a hotel called the Rodos Palace which is based in Ixia just a few miles along the West coast from Rhodes town. It was the perfect location for being able to get to the town and also right in front of the beach. The hotel was flawless, if you ever go to Rhodes you must stay there (even the Greek Prime Minister stayed there!) The staff were so so lovely and the hotel was full of things to do as well as all the pools 😍 Click here to take a look at the hotels website.

Food

First of all. I love Greece. The culture, the people, the weather and omg the FOOD! Even though my blog focuses on fashion, food is the other love in my life lol. I got to try so many amazing dishes during my trip including local delicacies like Bougatsa, Greek yoghurt, flower honey, halva, moussaka…. I could go on and on.

Sightseeing

One of the things I enjoyed the most was trying new things and learning about different cultures. In Rhodes town I visited a few museums including the Archaeological Museum and the Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes. They had pottery that was dated BC. BC! I could not comprehend how I was seeing such beautiful craftsmanship on these artifacts that were from SO long ago! I didn’t realise what a positive experience it is mentally to explore and try new things. Being on holiday gave me a lot of time for reflection and having the opportunity to understand and appreciate culture like I did , I felt very fortunate indeed.

The ONLY negative of the holiday was the mosquitoes. I didn’t realise I should of put insect repellent on. I leave it at that. Lesson learnt Hannah ahaha .

Exciting News!

Whilst being on holiday it gave me a lot of time to think creatively and reflectively so I have a series of blog posts coming up based on the trip including holiday packing help, what beauty products to take (SPFFFFFF) and why everyone should take a social media break.

Good evening!! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Last Wednesday it was my mum’s birthday and to celebrate we went to Kensington Palace and saw the Diana exhibition. My mum has always loved Diana’s style and personality and has wanted to go to the exhibition for so long!

For those of you that don’t know a lot about Diana, she was formerly Lady Diana Spencer and mother to Prince William and Harry. Given the title the “People’s Princess”, she had a major influence on people and what people wore at the time. She was known for wearing lots of loafers, ruffled white shirts and velvet hairbands. In 1991 she was photographed for Vogue highlighting her role in the fashion industry. She knew the power of fashion.

Back to the day! We arrived at the palace just before 2pm (tickets are timed so make sure you give yourself plenty of time to get there). It was so lovely to walk through Hyde Park on the way to the palace, I definitely want to go back in the Summer…. sooo Instagram worthy. I do recommend going to Kensington Palace in the afternoon. There are less large groups and it is a lot quieter to walk round and enjoy it. I did hear as well that there would be long queues into the palace and into the Diana exhibition but we had none!

Walking into the palace was so beautiful its such a big and grand house in the middle of London. Walking round the house was so enchanting, it was really interesting learning the history of all the people that have lived there. I also loved looking out the windows onto the large and colourful, landscaped gardens and imagining what it would be like to live there and look out onto the amazing view.

Then we arrived at the Diana exhibition and went on an emotional journey through her life. One of my favourite things about the exhibition was all the quotes about her from different fashion designers. It showed how much of an impact Diana had had on people and particularly the fashion world.

The exhibition was split into three main rooms which showcased Diana’s dresses. It was amazing to be so up close to styles she actually wore. Then there was another section which included sketches of designs that Diana would wear. It even included notes that Diana had written about what she liked or wanted to change. Seeing the process from paper to fabric brought it all together for me.

Some of the dresses were very famous like the dress Diana wore when she danced with John Travolta. Another dress was designed by Gianni Versace; and this was my favourite one. It was placed in the middle of the room and everyone walked around it in awe. As you moved it sparkled and on a closer look it was astonishing to see the intricate details on the dress that had been crafted so beautifully. It is also quite a special dress because before Diana adopted Royal tradition to wear only British designers. However, once her Royal duties ended it allowed her to try out different designers; so truly an iconic dress. The dress can be seen in the picture below.

I do not want to tell you much more because it was one of the most wonderful exhibitions I have been fortunate enough to see and I want you to go see it too! Princess Diana was a truly remarkable woman and it shone through in what she wore.

On another note, some of the outfits were very 80s/ early 90s featuring trends like big shoulder pads, gingham, pastels and Prince of Wales check which are all styles that are so on trend now. Lots of the pieces that Diana wore would not been out of place today. This made me think about how Diana’s style would have evolved if she had not sadly passed away. What do you think she would of worn? How would it have effected society and the introduction of online shopping?

I want to end this blog post on a quote that was featured at the exhibition by a fashion designer called, Geeta Sarin. For me the quote sums up Diana as a style icon perfectly and depicts the importance of what you wear and the effect it can have…

“She knew she was the most photographed woman in the world and she wanted to use that… to help others.”

A fun trend for SS18 is basket bags. If your on Instagram you’ll see every fashion blogger with one of these bags on their arms. Pair with a long flowing dress or a pretty top and jeans. A basket bag is a staple for SS18.

Below I have found my top 5 basket bags.. Go have a little scroll, let me know what you think as always.